18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
GRIFF
“Everybody ready?” Cole asks, fiddles with setting his phone up on a tripod while I huff and shake my head.
“I’ll join a union if you try to make me be the wheelbarrow,” I threaten blandly, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Want to switch?” Ridge offers. “You can get on your hands and knees and twerk instead.”
I scowl and don’t even bother to dignify that with a response. Listen, getting laid regularly and having Ledger in my life has softened me up, but there’s no amount of sex or emotional fulfillment that’s going to get me to participate in whatever TikTok dance craze Cole has decided to subject us to this week.
“Come on, the videos where we all dance are the only ones that get anywhere near as many views as Ren’s bee guy videos do.”
I level him with a look. “I’d rather be swarmed by bees than dance.”
Stone’s eyes light up and I already know I’m going to hate whatever he’s about to say.
… And that’s how I end up standing in the middle of the gravel driveway of an unfinished house with my arms crossed and a deep frown on my face, glaring into the camera while all eight of my coworkers twerk and grind on me. We go through four takes before Cole is happy with it. I’ll never admit it out loud, but when he finally plays it back for us with the music added, it is kind of a funny contrast to see them flailing and gyrating in their hard hats and reflective vests while I bare my teeth and look generally put out. Ledger will get a kick out of it, and that’s enough to finally make my lips twitch with a smile.
“And that’s lunch,” Cole declares once he’s posted the video.
“Another morning of hard labor,” West deadpans, and Stone catches him in a headlock.
“Speak for yourself, I got nearly a full room of drywall up.”
“I guess that’s why you pay yourself the big bucks.” West elbows him playfully. “I’ll make the lunch run. What does everybody want?”
Ideas are thrown around and we settle on a soup and sandwich place. Miller pulls out a small pad of paper from his back pocket to take down everyone’s order, starting with Stone.
“Chicken soup and some bread rolls,” he says.
Miller smirks as he jots it down. “Extra butter for those bread rolls?” He waggles his eyebrows.
Stone groans. “I’m never going to live that down, am I? I don’t know why I even told you guys about that.”
The mention of butter has heat tingling in my gut at the memory of the other night in Ledger’s kitchen. I cock my head, already knowing I’ll regret what I’m about to ask, but too curious to stop myself.
“Live what down?”
Stone sighs. “Sometimes when two men love each other very much and they’re too horny to find lube…”
Oh no.
No. No. Stone isn’t getting at what I think he’s getting at, is he?
“I’ve never been so horny that I’d let anyone shove a stick of butter up my ass.” Ev shakes his head.
“No, just horny enough to lose a bullet vibe up there,” Apollo says, and Ev turns a shade of scarlet I’ve never seen before.
I’m still stuck on the butter thing with Stone though.
He rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t a whole stick, just a couple of fingerfuls. And it was one time.”
“Uh-huh. Is that why there were always finger divots in the butter when I lived with you guys? There’s a reason I switched to margarine.” He shudders, and Stone smirks again.
“Fine, it was more than once.”
I’ve never had an existential crisis before, but I’m pretty sure I’m having one right now. I’ve made choices Stone has made, and something about that feels very wrong on a cellular level.
My thoughts flash back to the feeling of Ledger squeezing around my cock and the sounds I drew out of him as I fucked him hard and deep on the kitchen floor. My lips twitch with another almost-smile and heat floods my veins. Maybe I can live with having this one thing in common with our resident dumbass.
“But what my husband and I do in the privacy of our own kitchen is between us and god.”
“And Land O’Lakes,” Ollie quips.
Stone chuckles and gives him the finger. “If I didn’t love you guys so much, I would hate you. Lucky for you, I can take your teasing and still be happy as a clown.”
“Happy as a clam ,” Ollie says.
“Are clams known for their excessive happiness?” Stone cocks his head and frowns.
Ollie frowns right back, glancing over at Cole, who shrugs. They were right, the more time you spend around Stone, the more his versions make sense. Maybe I should quit and find a new job before I agree with him that taking something for granite makes just as much sense as taking it for granted. After all, if something’s ‘set in stone,’ you can count on it, right? Oh shit, it’s already happening.
It takes a few minutes and a bit more ball busting, but eventually everyone’s order is in, and West and Miller take off to go pick it up.
“Hey, speaking of doing the dirty with a sexy neighbor…” Stone waggles his eyebrows at me.
“When were we speaking of that?” I scratch the back of my neck and try to replay the last few minutes to figure out what I must have missed.
“Dare and I were neighbors,” he says, waving a hand dismissively. “Then I rented some goats, one of them ate his underwear, and we lived happily ever after.”
“I think you’re missing a few important plot points in that recap, Stoney.” Cole chuckles.
“Well, that’s the safe for work, TL;DR. Anyway …” Stone rounds on me with a grin. “Please tell me you’re out of denial about that sweet thang of yours with those pool shark skills and eyes that are clearly just for you.”
My lips twist into a full smile and I nod.
“I pulled my head out of my ass,” I assure him.
“Halle-fucking-lujah.” He slaps me on the shoulder in congratulations and the rest of the guys murmur similar sentiments. “Why don’t you text him to meet us at Wooley’s tonight for that rematch he promised?”
The familiar urge to beg off rises out of habit, but I can already picture the excitement written all over Ledger’s face at the invitation. I swallow the excuses forming on my tongue and nod.
“Sure, I’ll text him.” Ledger’s response comes seconds after I send the text, and it’s just a string of emojis that I think mean he’s excited. I scratch my head and spend a minute or two trying to decipher them before shrugging and looking back up at Stone. “Yeah, I think he’s free.”
“We should invite Steele and his crew too,” Cole suggests.
Just like that, a pool rematch turns into a plan to pack the bar with half the middle-aged gay men in Fall Crosse. Surprisingly, I think I’m looking forward to it, as long as Ledger is there to carry my end of the conversation and sneak his hands under my shirt when he thinks no one is looking. Actually, it sounds like it could be a fun night.
LEDGER
“I was going to offer to get the first round, but somehow there are twice as many of you as there were last time,” I joke, looking around at the chaos of several tables all pushed together.
I didn’t realize it when I moved to Fall Crosse, but I swear this town is Hot Bear Central. My eyes land on my favorite growly bear though, and I grin and skirt around the tables to reach him.
“Hey,” Griff murmurs, looping an arm around my waist as soon as I’m close enough to reach without getting out of his chair, and tugging me close until I stumble and fall into his lap. He grunts, then snakes his hand under my shirt to splay it across my belly.
My insides flutter and I’m positive I have big, throbbing hearts for eyes right now. But he’s my boyfriend and I don’t have to play it cool anymore, so I don’t do anything to try to tamp down what I’m sure is an over-the-top look of adoration on my face.
“Hey,” I say right back, planting a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek and chuckling at the blush that rises in its wake. I swivel back towards the group and lean over with my hand extended to the nearest dude I haven’t met before. “Ledger. Bird nerd, raccoon dad, and bear wrangler extraordinaire. Are all you guys on the construction crew too?”
I met a couple of them in passing at the fair last week, but didn’t have much time for official introductions since we were in a hurry to get to that unholy abomination of a fashion show.
The guy with a streak of silver in his beard and tattoo sleeves on both arms takes my hand with a friendly grin.
“Steele. I own Big Bull Mechanics, and these guys are the cats I’m cursed to wrangle.” He points out the rest of the guys I didn’t recognize and rattles off their names. Tallahassee, Shep, Riggs, Red, Henry, and Auggie.
“Did you say you have a pet raccoon?” The adorably nerdy twink seated on Steele’s other side with his hand on the mechanic’s lap leans over to ask with a wide grin. I know I met him at the county fair. He had his arm up a cow’s ass at the time, which is kind of hard to forget.
“Porter, right?” I ask, and he nods.
“Did you say bird nerd?” Riggs shoos a couple of the guys out of their chairs so he can move closer to me, and the petite mechanic is clearly used to getting his way, because no one even dares to complain, they all just shift down, taking their drinks with them.
“Yes, and yes.” I chuckle, answering both questions.
Griff tightens his grip on me and makes a quiet rumbly noise in his throat. I reach down and run my fingertips slowly back and forth along his forearm, giving him silent reassurance that no matter where my attention is, he’s always the first thing on my mind. He squeezes me again and my heart flutters. Is this what love feels like? I’ve convinced myself a dozen times that I’ve been madly in love with guys who, in hindsight, never deserved it and never felt the same way. But this thing with Griff… it’s different.
He shifts me on his lap just enough to lean forward and pour me a beer from the pitcher on the table while I get lost in conversation with Porter, who’s apparently Steele’s husband, about the work he does as the local vet and with the wildlife rehab down the road. And when Riggs tells me he has a pet crow I nearly piss myself from excitement.
“The last time that little asshole stole my keys, he didn’t bring them back for over a week,” Shep shouts down the table, shaking his head when he hears Riggs gushing about Vel the crow.
“Shep gets annoyed, Vel thinks it’s funny.” Riggs shrugs. “What can I say? He’s a shit stirrer just like his daddy.”
“Now, are you just Vel’s daddy or does Shep let you be Daddy too?” Auggie teases, waggling his eyebrows.
Riggs flashes his teeth in an approximation of a smile that looks a lot more like a threat than anything.
“Why, you hoping I’ll spank you?” Riggs shoots back.
“Nah, my ass is still sore from the pounding Henry gave me last night while we were closing up shop.” Auggie winks. His husband blushes and Steele groans.
“I explicitly said no fucking at the garage.”
“Oops.” There’s not a hint of actual apology in Auggie’s voice or his smirk.
“Alright, quick poll, who here has fucked at work?” I ask, loud enough for the whole table.
Nearly every hand at the table shoots up, and after a second, Steele sighs and raises his too.
“Your friends are freaks,” I say to Griff, grinning at him over my shoulder. “I love it.”
He laughs, the sound making me all giddy and tingly again.
“They’re something,” he agrees, nuzzling the back of my neck.
“Alright, you want to talk about badass birds…” Gates, Tallahassee’s husband and apparently Steele’s brother, hops out of his chair and comes around the table with his phone in hand. “You’ve got to see my buddy, Nigel. You’ve never met a macaw with better comedic timing than this guy.”
Gates’s videos of Nigel set off a flurry of everyone wanting to show off pictures or videos of their own pets. Griff seems content to just be , quietly observing and chiming in every so often when he has something to say. No one bugs him to talk more, but when he does pipe up, everyone quiets down to listen. It’s nice, like a big, chaotic family that apparently, I’m now a part of. Porter gives me his number so I can get TP a checkup without worrying she’ll be confiscated, and both Riggs and Gates invite me over to meet their birds sometime. My favorite part of the night though is Griff’s arm around me the whole time.
We don’t get around to playing pool this time, but no one seems to mind. There’s always next time or the time after that. Because now that I have Griff, I’m not going anywhere.
“Ready to head home?” he whispers in my ear after a couple of hours.
Everyone else still seems to be happy to sit around and shoot the shit. West even flags down his husband, Sawyer, to order another couple of pitchers of beer. If Griff is at his social limit though, I definitely don’t mind.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmur, nipping at his earlobe. “Sleep at my place tonight?”
“Ledge, I’d sleep under a rock if that was where you were planning to sleep.”
My heart flips and I bury my face in the crook of his neck to hide my overwhelming smile. Yeah, this is different from anyone else before. This is more than just an infatuation built on the fantasy of what I think a man is hiding behind his sexy, brooding exterior. Griff has shown me his vulnerable, squishy underbelly, and it just makes me want to protect him that much more. I would burn down the world for this man, and as a park ranger I take fire very seriously.
Is this love? It kind of feels like it.